Birth News!

On December 3rd I was witness to the birth of an adorable 8 lb. 9 oz. baby boy and a new family. It was also my birthday. The laboring mama and papa sang happy birthday to me as the clock struck midnight and then together we sang happy birthday to the worlds newest member ten hours later. Dad popped the champagne and we toasted to a their son and his wonderful birth! It was the best birthday breakfast this doula has ever had! In other birth news, San Diego Moms, Doulas, Midwifes and professionals held a Rally for Change in front of Sharp Mary Birch Hospital on December 17, 2011. Here is a picture of me at the Rally playing with Mykael Richards baby girl, Miss Annalise. To read more about our human rights march you can go to to the Rally for Change on facebook.

Our goal is to bring awareness to the rising c-section rates in this country. We are asking for evidence based care that is based on scientific studies, not tradition or "doctor convenience" based care. We also ask for full informed consent for every procedure and/or drug that is suggested or offered so that patients know the full benefits and risks to make an evidenced based decision on their care. We ask that it also be explained that 40-50% of inductions do not work and that may lead to a c-section. We ask that induction drugs that are NOT FDA approved for women and pregnancy stop being used as it increased the risk of maternal death and infant heart abnormalities and brain damage. We ask that policies be changed to reflect scientific studies on the following: 1. Allowing mothers to labor at home as long as possible 2. Allowing labor to start on it's own within 24 hrs of water rupturing as long as mother and baby are within normal range 3. Allowing mothers to eat and drink during labor 4. Allowing intermittent monitoring of fetal heart tones 5. Allowing mobility during labor 6. Allowing different pushing positions(birth stools, squatting, standing) other than on the patients back 7. Allowing delayed cord clamping until cord has finished pulsating 8. Allowing skin to skin contact for the first two hours after birth or until the first breastfeeding Evidence DOES NOT support elective c-sections or elective inductions. Evidence supports that mothers are not postdate until 42 weeks and induction should not be forced upon mothers before that time as long as mother and baby are within normal range. VBACs(Vaginal Births After Caesareans) should be accepted and fully supported as evidence for rupture is minimal. VBACS should be the standard.

Doula Dawn Thompson headed up the Rally and will be continuing in this effort with a soon to be up webpage and national and global initiative.  Stay tuned!

The next noteworthy item is that CNN Hero of the Year 2011 winner is Midwife, Robin Lim! If you haven't met Robin please click on this link and see her accept her award. Also look around at all the CNN Hero's. There are many amazing nominees which makes Robin's achievement that much more noteworthy. As Robin is quoted saying,

"Every baby's first breath on Earth could be one of peace and love. Every mother should be healthy and strong. Every birth could be safe and loving. But our world is not there yet."

Model Christy Turlington Burns writes about her visit to Robin's clinic in Indonesia in this Huffington Post story, My hero, Ibu Robin Lim. Robin's award makes me hopeful that mothers in my town, my country and my world will be safer during birth, be treated with more dignity and respect and that birth will be treated like a Human Rights issue that it is.

Now my most favorite midwife in the whole world (and I love many) is Ina May Gaskin and I saved the best for last as far as noteworthy birth news! The Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called a alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize, is awarded for outstanding vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people. This year Ina May Gaskin was one of the four Laureates! You can read about the other winners at The Right Livelihood Award webpage and you can watch Ina May's acceptance speech here.

“… for her whole-life’s work teaching and advocating safe, woman-centred childbirth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of mother and child.“

Bravo Ina May! And as Ina May would say, Bravo to all the men, women and mothers of the world who fight to birth their baby's in safety and peace and help their sisters, daughters, neighbors birth their babies into a better world.

Quotation ”A society that places a low value on its mothers and the process of birth will suffer an array of negative repercussions for doing so. Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world, so it is worth our while to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies throughout this extraordinarily influential part of life.” Ina May Gaskin

New is Such a Nice Word

New is one of my favorite words. New babys, new clothes, new cars, all smell so good. New friends, new ideas super nice! But this New Years Day something rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I am becoming a grouchy crone. Maybe I just need to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.

I like holidays as much as the next chap. I like holiday time with family and friends, holiday food, time away from the office, and I especially like attending holiday births. But this year the flood of Happy New Year wishes rubbed me the wrong way. Why? Not to be hypocritical here, let me say, I've wished plenty of folks Happy New Year. The words though sort of stuck in my craw. In my heart, for myself, the day was just another day. JUST?! I went to church, I walked on the beach at sunset (photo above is sunset taken by me on 1-1-12) and visited with a girlfriend. All the time thinking, "the miracle of this day is that it was a first ever, a brand New Day!". I am thankful for EACH and EVERY NEW DAY! I want to send each one of you a hug and a wish for a Happy Today! The sun comes up and a day is born. The snow falls and a storm is born, the season changes and Spring is sprung! We transition in every moment.

I am not a yogi but I practice being in the moment. This practice gives me joy and peace. That is what I wish for the people that pass through my life, joy and peace, being in the moment. In this moment for instance I am taking the time to do a exercise called NFA (Non Focused Awareness) as taught to me by Pam England in a Birthing From Within Mentor training. This practice (as I remember it) is simply going through your senses and paying attention to them. Don't judge them, don't turn you head but with your eyes open just relax and breath. Take your time. Here we go... In this moment I hear my fingers on the keyboard, I hear my pandora softly playing, I feel my breath, I feel a cramp in my typing fingers, I feel my bare feet on my sandals, I feel my sit bones in my chair and my eye glasses on the bridge of my nose. I feel my dry throat and my swallow. I see the bright morning light coming in the windows (and without really focusing on any of these things) I see a bright blue water bottle, reds, greens, whites, colors all around me and the shadows that they create. I smell.... Look! Even now it's a new moment. Happy New Moment!

[Sidenote: This  exercise works great for laboring through the transition stage of childbirth.]

Thank you God for this new breath. Another heart beat. With each breath I breathe out Thank you God! And breathe in Amen! And when all is quiet I will be with you God in eternity. Moments will be interesting there!

What new thing are you doing today?

Love you madly, Rosie

"be yourself because everyone else is taken"

Thank you to all who gave gifts of money, of time (babysitting & meals), of prayers to help Robin & Mike during the tragic loss of their twin boys. And Thank you to those who passed the word, the blog, on to others! I wanted to let you know that together you have blessed Robin's family with $4,000.00 to help in this difficult time.

I myself had never done a fund raiser of any kind and I have been so blessed by the outpouring of your love. Some shared words here, some shared on the paypal page, some emailed me and preferred to snail mail their gift. Yesterday I got a gas card gift card for Robin in the mail. A winery in Temecula had a food & toy drive! It's amazing what LOVE can accomplish!

I want to wish you and your family & friends a happy and holy Christmas!

May all the miracles and blessings that God has in his store house for you be realized and be enjoyed...every day throughout the coming year.

Your friend, Doula Rosie

Doula Robin's Monoamniotic Twins

Robin Baker, my friend, Doula client and fellow Doula, gave birth to still born twin boys yesterday morning, Wednesday, November 30, 2011.

Robin's Facebook post reads, "Today at 5:58am we greeted our sweet angel twins as they were gently born sleeping into the hands of their mommy and daddy. Elijah Barry & Henry Lee were 1.14 lbs & 1.12 lbs and beautiful as could be at 24 weeks. They were perfect in every way, and passed on to be with Jesus after becoming entangled in each others umbilical cords. We are heavy with grief but comforted by our Heavenly Father who is wise beyond our comprehension and loves us with an everlasting love. Thank you all for your love, support, and kind words and acts of service for our family ♥"

The boys were Momo twins. Knowing they were high risk, Robin planned to move into the hospital this coming Sunday so the twins could be monitored and taken via cesarean when needed. God had other plans and took them straight to heaven instead. You can read more about Robin on her website http://www.birthblessingschildbirth.com/.

Please consider making a donation, a one time gift, towards the expenses that include hospital, funeral, and burial for the twins. The financial burden is $5,000. I will keep you posted and will close the account when this goal is reached. You can use the link below to contribute. Also you can forward this blog to your friends or forward this link in an email.

Robin is a strong and Godly woman that I am honored to call friend. She labored long and was adamant that no one but Mommy & Daddy would catch the baby's. And so it was. Peacefully Mike and Robin Baker gave birth to their sleeping baby boy's.

Thank you for reading this, sharing it with others, and sharing with this family. An offering of your prayers or financial support, whatever you can, is greatly appreciated.

God bless you and your friends & family this Christmas and throughout the new year.

-Rosie Peterson

Orgasmic Birth Screening in the news!

I am just a small time Doula working a second job at my local University. I believe that young people need to be exposed to birth, healthy normal birth practices. Some OBGYN's and some OB nurses have not even witnessed normal birth. But women in San Diego are seeking out and finding ways to have the most private, uninterupted, physiological normal births, usually at home. So I, having a homebirth myself, and witnessing, all too few times a year, normal birth as a Doula, think to myself, "Self here you are at a college surrounded by young people that are about to go out into the world and have babies." "How can you embellish their education, afterall you, Rosie, have no college degree. What makes you think you can teach them?" But I know BIRTH! I know in my bones and from years of personal studies and experience, that how a person is born affects them for their whole life. I am a subscriber to the Birth Psychology website and newsletter. I have attended almost 300 births. I have taught childbirth education. I have studied under Pam England, Gail Tully, Anna Verwaal, and many many mothers and fathers. But mostly the babies will tell you, the calm, healthy, clear eyed babies will tell you how much their journey earthside meant to them. That the completion of that journey from beside mom's heart to feeding at her breast, the recieving of important antibodies, hormones, and yet undiscovered (as deep as the ocean...) important things that God designed them to do in the birth canal is important and meaningful. That's right, full of meaning. Some people today think it's meaningless. So sad. But to each his own. I move on, looking for that one more soul who's birth experience leads them to have a inborn faith in the birth process and an innate knowing, on a cellular level, that the way that their babies will be born is important. And to those people I will share their options and hear their birth memories and their new visions for their own baby's birth.

So I worked hard with the University Women's Center to bring the birth movie, Orgasmic Birth, to the students and community. It was a small showing but a captivated, riveted, group that watched. The midwife, doula panel answered questions after the movie. And guess what? We're going to do it again next semester! What birth movie do you think we should show? I'd love to hear your suggestions and your ideas for teaching birth (on the down low) in San Marcos, California. LOL!!! You're not going to learn this stuff in most human development classes.

It's always icing on the cake to get some press. I was happy to meet a radio personality, Kenny Goldberg. Kenny is the Health Reporter for the local radio station KPBS an affiliate of NPR Radio. I was happy with Kenny's story. Here it is for you, Growing Number of Women Choose Orgasmic Birth, (and for me to refer back to). Love you madly, Rosie Peterson


Each one teach one. -African Proverb

What is Your Position?

You can pretty much tell what Rixa's position is by the name of her blog, Stand and Deliver. Here is another position on Positions in Labor by Musings of a Montreal doula. But what is your position? Have you given birth? What position did you prefer at the time of the birth of your baby? If you have not had a baby, what positions do you like to sleep in? have sex in? This will give you a clue to the position you might like to give birth in. Your answer is probably, "various positions". And so it is with birth. What if someone told you that you don't have a choice in the position you sleep in. You don't have a choice in the position that you have sex in! I would probably be a sleepy, grouchy, half crazy person if someone told me that. But that is what women have been told for years. Women in America and many parts of the world have been told what position they can and cannot birth in. NO MORE!

I have given much thought on why my town has such a high epidural rate, a high cesarean rate and why many women I talk to do not embrace "natural childbirth". I believe now that the reason women have scoffed at my "crazy natural childbirth" passion is because they could not bare the pain that birthing on their back creates. I cannot blame them. I blame the doctors (male and female), the culture, the traditions that are outdated, archaic. Women, Birthers, you are todays consumers, you are hiring (or firing) your health care providers, you can help all future women. Birth is a business above all (strange as that may sound), By demanding the customer (you) be served in a way that is both healthy and more comfortable you can create a new herstory, a new paridiam!

Please read a wonderful article by my friend Jill, Latin American Countries Campaign for Access to Vertical Birth
I am jumping on the band wagon today before another day goes by. As a long distant internet friend is about to give birth I promised myself to join her in information sharing, freeing, blogging, about this important movement - the subject of movement in childbirth! It's all here in Rixa's blog, Birth Around the World, Vertical Birth

I am 'standing' on the sidelines here applauding and endorsing these smart, brave women who have all their ducks in a row; the studies, degrees, and technical savy to write to you. I am here to point you in their direction and I am here to talk to you if you ever want to talk about your patient rights, birthing options, safety and normalcy of birth, pain coping techniques and my Doula work. I am here to applaud you and encourage you and your family when your time to birth comes. Please take comfort in the facts shared in the referenced blogs and websites I share. And take comfort in knowing that your body was made to give birth, that birth is a healthy normal process and that moving to the beat of your babies heart and moving to the sound of your own drummer, your bodies inner knowing, you will find a comfort more powerful than any drug or any doula. You will find your way.

The movie, A Timeless Way, shows that throughout time women gave birth in the upright position. Parts of the movie can be seen on YouTube.

Part I - Birth From Ancient Times

Part II - Birth Images from the 1800's

Part III - European Birth Images from the 1500's

Recuperando la posicion vertical is a sensational video you can see on YouTube. Translated it means: Humanized Birth: Retrieving the Verical Position

Spirt-Led Birth writes about the video below here

Here Spirit-Led writer, Susana Fierro-Baig, translates it for us:

"A woman should have her baby in the position she chooses."

"Walking and moving freely makes the baby's head push the cervic to produce more oxytocin."

"Dancing soothes the mama and favors the productionof endorphins. Childbirth is less painful."

"The movement and pressure of the baby relax the pelvic floor muscles and facilitates dilitacion, rotation, and decent."

"With movement the contractions are more effective, you can share with your partner, and the waiting time is more pleasant."

"The birth canal when the baby descends becomes wider, there is less trauma and possibilities of complications."

"The mother is the protagonist, has an active role and can change position and adopt the best position."

"Women throughout history have opted instinctively for the vertical position at the time of delivery."

"The vertical position makes for more effective uterine contractions, avoids using synthetic oxytocin (pitocin). Less risk."

"The vertical position causes the mother to feel more comfortable. It facilitates teh encounter with her baby."

"By finding the most comfortable position and physiological delivery occurs naturally, cesareans are avoided."

"A phyiological position allows uniform and spontaneous dilation of the perineum, avoiding episiotomy and tears."

"When mothers opt to have their baby on their knees, there is less pressure in large vessels and a better oxygenation to the baby."

"A woman may choose to hold onto a sheet which is done in indigenous communities since time immemorial."

"In conclusion women should choose the position, with liberty and peace, but the equestion arises."

"If the vertical position is the most convenient (for mothers), why do they continue lying mothers down during labor and delivery?"

Transformation

What does that word mean to you? Today the word transformation reminds me of my birth. Do you have a minute? Curl up in the foetal position with me. Yes travel backwards with me, way back, back, back…back to when I was floating in warm water, muffled voices and muffled light all around me…My reality is love and peace…I know those words only from what my heart tells me. My ticking, beating, singing heart! It speaks the truth. Swoosh swoosh, swoosh swoosh, love peace, love peace… my existence came only out of pure love and peace. Oh there were hard days back then, growing limbs, hair follicles, etc., but I enjoyed it like play. Fascination was a big word for me but I knew it intimately. Even making the physical transitions to breathing with my lungs instead of my umbilical cord and nourishing myself by suckling on my mother’s breast was doable, the physical work was natural. It was the emotional work that took its toll. I was not listened to or respected for my human form. It has taken years of relearning to trust myself, trust in love and trust the God that designed and invented love and trust… and all these words that I am writing here – every single word here I love and trust. Now I have peace.

The respect and gentle kindness that we show babies is important! It is understated. It is vital. I cannot find the perfect word. Well in one sense, the word I am looking for is vital to the completion of this essay and the message that I am trying to communicate. But ‘vital’ still seems too weak a word. The respect and gentle kindness that we show to babies, before they are born, during their birth time, and after they are earth side, is relative to the health of the planet. The harm we, either unknowingly or knowingly, inflict on babies during this early transformation, their birth, can cause more harm than we imagine. Volumes of medical text would go away if we valued our bodies and our babies more. I do not mean we should throw more money at it or overindulge ourselves, becoming narcissist or fearful about birth. I mean to honor birth, its power, its pain, its time, its vessel. In my old crone years, this much I know. I like what Suzanne Arms poem says, “If we hope to create a non-violent world where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred we must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life. For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From these roots grow fear and alienation ~ or love and trust”.

The way we are born has creation power of its own, not unlike the miracle of conception. It is not just a physical event. It is more. It is a spiritual event. Birth should not become something of an unpleasant experience like the “generation gap” has become. Oh yes, we celebrate our children’s 16th birthday with a drivers license and their 18th with voter privileges, just like we celebrate baby’s with baby showers and cute things. Celebrate these life transitions with time. Love takes time. There, my words found the way to the truth, it was simple, and birth is simple, unless you do not have time. Hurried love? Who really feels loved when it’s hurried? Simply take time with yourself. Take time with your baby in utero. And take the time your baby needs during labor and in your early postpartum days. These are transformation tips from my heart.

I birthed three babies. I didn’t do it with a doula or any of the knowledge that has come to me since then (attending 250 plus births as a doula). I did my best when I gave birth. I learned along the way and I walked my path. I birthed my first baby in wonder, my second baby euphorically and my third baby at home (almost heaven), instead of a hospital. Each time I was transformed. With time I realized that this was my moment in time. My time to heal. During these birthing times, unlike my own birth, I was the protector of the unnamed, the unborn. I was able to choose to listen to and respect myself and my baby. I selected people that did the same. I was transformed.

If you are still in your birthing years please consider what some loving folks shared with me thirty plus years ago when I opened my heart to heal myself through the birthing of my babies. In 1976 I read Suzanne Arms, Immaculate Deception, Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery, and Childbirth without fear by Grantly Dick-Read. Today’s guiding lights are named differently, but are still many. Ina May Gaskin’s message is still the same today but her book, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, is in today’s language, it is current and it is very good. Can you imagine having a baby and not having a cell phone, television or microwave? Back in 1979-84 I didn’t even have one ultrasound! Birth hasn’t changed. Birth is just the same today. Advancement in technology has not changed the tides, the sunrise, the sunset or the birth process. Technology has not improved the infant mortality rate in our country (The US is ranked 46 in the world). Sorting through the information age, finding the information that will assist you in your transformation into motherhood and finding a community that will provide a loving and gentle transition for your baby is your truest challenge today. How will I do it you ask yourself? The same way I did…we do the best we can.

I believe the world was formed by my Father God. I believe My Father God has lead me along my path. His lovingkindness has been the true source of my healing. He has called me to be with women during birth and He has used birth to show me more about Himself and His truely loving nature. He is an awesome God. If you don't yet know this, you can. Ask him for guidance and He will lead you into exciting transformation!

For you oh God created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16

As a birth doula I do the best I can. I continue to be transformed by every birth I attend. This year, in the late summer, I will become a new born grandmother. I know that my grandbaby is swimming a perfect swim stroke today. His swim stroke is going swoosh-swoosh, swoosh-swoosh, love-peace, love-peace.

– Rosie, woman, mother and doula…but first I was a baby girl.

(Musing that I wrote and filed away in the Spring of 2010)

It Ain't Right!

Today I read Childbirth Videos: Helpful or Hard to Watch? , another good article on the dilemma I've been thinking about for some time. I think it is valuable for women of all ages, men too, to know how babies are born. It is too bad that many movies present birth as a dramatic event, when often times birth is down right boring. Oops! Did I just say that? Did no one ever tell you that? Boring. Birth is boring. Heck, not to the mom who is giving birth, not to the daddy waiting to catch his baby and not to me who is a birth nut (and you if you are reading this). But if one is not aware that there is a very holy thing happening when a new person is born, if a birth attendant is not in love with this family then they should not be in the room. They will be bored. If you are just looking at the mechanics of birth and not the LOVE quotient then birth is boring. It's like watching people make love. Do you look the other way or stare at Public Displays of Affection? I don't know many people that stare. That's how birth should be. Janet Isaacs Ashford wrote Natural Love: A Parody. It's a fictional account of newlyweds Kate and Sam, who take a class in "prepared love," and are admitted to the hospital's "natural love room." But many intrusions by staff and the use of monitoring devices cause things to go awry and their love must be mechanically resolved.

Recently I viewed Shiloh's quick and peaceful water birth. I realized my favorite births and birth videos and teaching tools involve births where you never see the baby's head crowning. I like to think that this baby was conceived in private, grew in mommy's belly in private and will be mothered the rest of his life in private (for the most part). Why should this baby be born into strangers hands with mom in an uncomfortable position, spread eagle, splayed out, for the convenience of this stranger, doctor, catcher????

In my town there is a television news commentator and investigative reporter, named Turko. Everyone in Southern California knows about The Turko Files. The slogan and quip this commentator uses is, "It Ain't Right". He goes on to right wrongs, seeking justice for the everyday citizen. "It Ain't Right!" keeps ringing in my head when I watch women birthing on their backs. Call me a Turko want-to-be but these women are made to look like turkeys; on their back, feet in stirrups, sometimes with strangers hands up all the way up the birth canal, vagina, baby slide, whatever you want to call it, not unlike a turkey. It's not right! I got angry the other night and my boyfriend joined in the list of funny and not-so-funny reasons that this supine positioning for birth is so WRONG. He said something hilarious (side note: he's the funniest man on the planet!), I laughed so hard I started crying and then I did cry. When will hospitals let women birth intuitively, in whatever position is good for the mom (which usually means it's the position baby needs too)? Get off your back! How many of us have only had sex on our back? Okay sometimes maybe, but always???? Nope.

Last week I had the honor of attending a woman's homebirth. She gave birth to her baby in a small deep warm pool of water. During her labor she always made great progress when we left her alone, in the privacy of her bedroom, with her man. During the birth she stayed in the middle of the pool (in her kitchen) providing herself an isolated space, where no one could interfere with her work. It was even hard for the midwife to reach her belly to take fetal heart tones (but of course the midwife did get FHT, looking like a trapeze artist, balancing on the pools edge!). We (the midwife, father, doula) never saw this Mama's bottom, perineum, vagina, as baby was born. Mom was in a sqatting position in the middle of the pool, with HER hand on her yoni. Mom felt her baby crown and only after baby's head was born did the dad and midwife help by supporting baby's head (not pulling on it). We saw baby's cute face through the water but we did not see Mama's vagina. Nope, there was no need to be staring at this birthing woman's vagina! Then mom pushed out the body and then received her baby.

Side Note: after mom got out of water, she went to bed to birth the placenta. After a while the midwife checked her perineum for lacerations. No repair was needed. I was not present, it was very private. No extra people staring at this angelic Mommy's vagina! She just had a beautiful, hard but beautiful, Home Birth After Cesarean.

Since we no longer live in small towns where neighbors look out for each other like in early settler days, days when women cared for each other in childbirth, strong brave women rolled up their sleeves, came in from the fields and birthed their young or helped a neighbor give birth (they were not delivered), it is almost impossible for most of us to know that women don't birth on their backs. If left to your own instincts where would you birth? Who knows? I had two hospital births and one homebirth, all on my back. I was conditioned. I was compliant. I was fortunate back then, 25 years ago, to have vaginal births. Some women that have cesareans may have avoided them by having the freedom to move around in labor. Many cesarean sections could be prevented if women could push in her good time, with her body's urgings, in the position that feels right for her. I know many brave strong women. Some have birthed by cesarean section, some on their backs in hospital, some standing in birth centers, and some how ever they want at home.

I am very amazed at my fortune, I am rich to know these women, I am truly blessed to be a Birth Doula. I would like to be a good Turko and report that today we went from "It Ain't Right" to "It's All Right! Let this Mama birth how she sees fit"...in my lifetime? In my childrens life time? I pray it's so.

Love you madly, Rosie

Doula Moments, Memories and the Mundane

I wasn't at a birth last night. So why didn't I sleep? Why did I get three hours of sleep? I was thinking and praying for one, two, three, four of the next mommies that I will be with when they give birth. They are amazing women. Each one with a story that makes me feel like a child sitting hand on chin waiting for the next story, the next chapter, the next word that she will speak. I want nothing more than for her to know she is strong. Okay I also want her to know she is healthy, her baby is healthy, her body that grew her baby's ears, eyes, hair, toe nails, that body knows how to birth her baby. Given the respect, the time, the nurturing it needs, it can do anything!

The Doula calling is a blessing...if you don't care about time, if you believe in magic and miracles; if you see the humor and the beauty in the mundane everyday things; and if you can be bored and not frustrated.

I've always acknowledged childbirth, birth in any form, as a miracle. Today, as I attend mostly births in hospitals, I am grateful for the miracle of a busy hospital, or a respectful nurse, so that mom is left to labor in peace and she is given the time this baby needs, the miracle when the nurses believe with us for a VBAC and the miracle of a good on-call doctor.

The magic is not that babies come out our vagina's. The magic is the transformation of a woman into a mommy, a man into a daddy, the world shifting as a perfect and smart new baby enters the room, enters our hearts; when Mom knows her hormonal cocktail is stewing, her baby is molding, her spirit is calm and her loved ones BELIEVE she can do this ~ perfectly ~ her way ~ making herstory.

If you care more about the way that a baby comes into the world, without regard for the time, care more for this new baby's birth day and this new mommy's labor than your own birthday dinner or that Christmas Eve brunch then you are a doula already. The premise of the Doula profession is that "The day a woman gives birth is a day she will never forget." Therefore we want to make it a positive, sweet memory. You know that this baby's birth is also a memory for him, a memory he'll carry in his psyche, on a cellular level, for life, subconsciously effecting his behaviors, decisions. You know that being born in peace and joy and safe calmness can effect not only the babies life but heal the mother or the father, even the stranger that is present, and your time is worth it ~ you are a doula. ♥

I will be present, in my feet, on this ground, on the planet, in my spirit today. And I will be present in the middle of the night, when the quietness wraps me like a blanket and I have time to send you loving thoughts and time to talk to my God. And I will be present when you call me in the middle of the night in labor...or just with a question.
I'm reminded of nights with nurslings, how I loved the one on one time in the semi dark, nursing. That 'present' still nurtures me today.
I hope to be present with you soon. I hope to spend face-to-face, one-on-one time with you soon.

Let's talk about what nurtures you.

Love you madly, Rosie

Stick a Fork in Me!

Stick a fork in me and you will find out that I AM NOT DONE! I am not done learning how to be a doula. I am not done learning to be the kind of person I want to be, the kind of person God wants me to be. I am patient with myself. That in itself is growth! But I now know that I will never be done! Life is an amazing journey, and I am open to learning something new every single day along the way. As an adult I learned that I am A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder) and oh boy am I!!! Just ask my mom and my family. We laugh alot...

My imperfections (A.D.D.) serve me well sometimes as a doula. Birth is not predictable, measurable even. So an O.C.D. (obsessive complusive disorder) person might struggle with the ever changing birth climate, conflicting birth studies, variety of birthing women and the babies that come in positions and times that are not comfortable or not convenient....for whoever *tisk*.

Here's a great doula! Fay is a doula in the UK. Here is a testimony from a happy mama!
Inspiring.

I swear I will get back to Vancouver some day and when I do I will have a cup with Jacquie. My Canadian mentor.

My local San Diego mentors are many. My doula trainer, Gerri Ryan is now a midwife! And now my clients are becoming doulas and mentors. Ahhh the birth of a doula! Yes we are giving birth to strong women and safe babies. Who in turn will give birth to safe women and strong babies. I have a strong God who encourages us to love each other in a way that makes us a safe, peaceable, simple, happy people - not finished, quite undone, but happy.

I give thanks to Him. I am grateful. Gratefully underdone. Looking forward to what's cooking! What about you?

If you are cooking a baby, I am sorry to tell you that your baby won't be perfect. And I like to think all babies are perfect so that is hard for me to say! But truth be told, only God is perfect. Genesis 1:31 says, "And God saw everything that He made, and behold, it was very good."
Very Good! Yay, I am very good! Your baby is very good! That ain't bad!

In our world today and particually in our hospitals we expect perfect. We expect our bodies to birth perfectly. We expect our doctors to be perfect and we expect our birth plans to go perfect. Agh! Lets be real. As a doula I often say, "Birth works." It does most of the time. If given time and patience. If mom is given a few tips from our ancestors (squat), and a few herbs and a junk food free diet, birth works. Even if we do nothing, birth works. Babies are born.

Please be patient. with me. with your baby. with yourself. And finally with God.

Philippians 1:6 "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion..."

Love you madly, Rosie